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Tuesday I was tired and didn't want to do my cardio session at lunch. The boring stuff. The part that isn't fun and doesn't motivate me.
That feeling is always there. I've just learned to keep going anyway and do the hard things even when I'm not motivated.
I always say it: you never regret doing something physical for your body.
The work that raises your ceiling isn't the work that builds your engine.
Last issue we talked about the house, and how the attic is what raises the ceiling on your whole cardiovascular system. If you missed it, go back and read issue #2 first. This one will make a lot more sense.
Four minutes hard, three minutes easy, four rounds. That was the attic. If you ran it, you know exactly how it felt.
Here's what I left out.
The attic only works if there's a house under it.
That's this week. The downstairs.
First: What Zone 2 Actually Does
Zone 2 is the pace you could hold for a long time without falling apart.
At that pace your body leans on slow-twitch fibers and burns fat as its main fuel. It’s the only intensity you can do a lot of without it wrecking the rest of your week. The job isn’t to make you tired. It’s to make the engine bigger so the hard days have something to pull from.
You’ll hear zone 2 sold as the fix for sleep, stress, body composition, HRV, and fat loss. There’s truth in all of it, and I’ll take those one at a time in the months ahead. Today I want you to hold one idea:
Zone 2 is what lets you keep doing hard things.
Then: How you find it
There are a few ways, and the two most accurate ones aren't realistic for most people. A metabolic test in a lab will tell you exactly. So will a lactate test, where you prick your finger and find the pace that keeps you just under 2 mmol. Most of you don't have the time or the access for either one, so let me give you the simplest place to start.
The talk test.
Find the fastest pace where you can still hold a conversation. Not gasping between words. Not comfortable enough to sing. A full sentence, out loud, without breaking it up to breathe. That's the top of your zone 2.
I put a short video together so you can hear what it sounds like in real time.
1. The MAF number (from Dr. Phil Maffetone)
Take 180, subtract your age, and stay at or under that number.
Subtract another 5–10 if you’re coming back from illness or injury.
Add 5 if you’ve trained consistently for a couple of years without setbacks.
2. Percentage of your max
If you’ve actually tested your max heart rate on the machine you’re using, zone 2 sits around 60–70% of that number. This one uses your number instead of a formula, which makes it more personal. It only works if the max you’re using is real.
Which Machine
A bike, or a treadmill on an incline. That's the whole list.
Use the bike when your legs are beat up from lifting. No impact, no recovery cost, and the resistance dial holds the zone exactly.
Use the incline walk when you want the simplest entry. Around 8 to 12% grade, around 3-3.5 miles per hour, hands off the rails.
You're probably thinking you'll just go for a run. For most men, an easy run isn't actually easy, it just feels that way. Staying in zone 2 means running slower than your ego lets you and walking the hills, and most guys won't do that. So they run the same middle pace for years. Too hard to recover from, too easy to build anything.
If you can't say a full sentence, you're not in zone 2. Stick with the incline walk or the bike.
How Much, and Where the Time Comes From
If you’re a beginner, start with 20 minutes × 3 times per week. Work your way up to 3–4 sessions of 45–90 minutes. Then add the 1–2 × 4x4 sessions (zone 5) you tried last week. That’s a complete week for the everyday athlete, and it's the first time all of this fits together into something you can actually do.
The best way to do your zone 2 training is by stacking with other things.
Personally, I do almost all of my zone 2 with reading a book, listening to a podcast, or getting on a phone call I've been putting off. I’m killing two birds with one stone, and that really makes it more sustainable. That’s the difference between a habit that lasts a month and one that lasts a year.
QUICK HITS
Bloodwork. Check your resting heart rate tomorrow morning before you get out of bed, and write it down. It's free, it's already on your wrist, and it's half of something we're using next week.
Training. If your Whoop says zone 2 and your buddy's Apple Watch says zone 3 on the same walk, neither is broken. Every device runs its own algorithm. Pick one and stay with it.
Fatherhood. My two-year-old, Adelyna, is convinced she can do anything her four-year-old brother can do. Last week she climbed a few stories up a playground tower without a second of hesitation. Two weeks before that she fell in the living room and we ended up at urgent care. She was back to climbing almost immediately. I'm the one who still hasn't recovered. She hasn't learned to set limits in her own mind yet, and I want to build a home where she never has to.
Stress. If the hardest part of the session is not going faster, you're doing it right.
🧱 ON THE WALL
"Life has no limitations, except the ones you make." -Les Brown
That one hangs in my gym, and Tuesday I walked past it on my way to the bike I didn't want to get on.
Most of the limits I see on guys in my gym aren't physical. They're the belief that a workout has to hurt to count, or that there's no hour left in the week to give it.
Cory is a client of mine in his early forties who came to me a couple of years ago wanting to drop body fat and get as fit as he could. He'd been training hard for eight years straight and was a bit overtrained by the time I met him. He was strong. That was never the issue. But I watched him train and he couldn't rebound between sets. He'd get gassed early and stay gassed. The problem wasn't his effort. His engine was too small.
He was strength training six days a week with nothing in there to build that engine. No zone 2, no easy work, nothing that let him recover. It took me a while to earn enough trust to change it. When he finally let me, we rebuilt the week. Three or four days of strength training, two or three days of zone 2.
He got leaner and his energy came back. He didn't dread the zone 2 days either, because those became the ones where he read and caught up on podcasts.
He didn't need to work harder. He just needed a bigger engine and the missing link was adding zone 2 into his weekly routine.
1️⃣ THIS WEEK'S 1%
Pick one 20 minute block this week. Bike or treadmill, a pace where you could still say a full sentence, stacked with something you already do.
Then hit reply and tell me what you stacked it with. I'll read every one.
Next week I'll show you how to prove any of this is working. No lab, no bloodwork, no money. Two numbers you already have.
Your body is worth stewarding.
Go become 1% better. 🔧
-Coach Joshua